What would Gandhi say?

Today(Oct 2nd) is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. It is a national holiday in India. As I sit on the other side of the world in this day and age I wonder what would the Grand Old Man of India have to say about the way things are today. He inspired many a leader after his time including Dr. Martin Luther King from America and Nelson Mandela from South Africa.

He would have been 140 years old today. He was assassinated for being sympathetic to other people and their plight. We read about him in history books and Google put him on their logo on their website (I am sure most of you saw that). But when you compare the state of world politics at that time – 1948 and now 2009 – you see that there are more nations that are free – he would be happy about that, more nations that are armed – he would not be happy about that and they decided to have the Olympics in Rio in South America – he would be very happy about that.

He was a simple man – a man of principle – which is why the British could never win against him. If he saw the technology in India today I am not sure what he would say considering he was a very simple man – he was so much against having to pay for foreign goods – he started making his own cloth using the spinning wheel – so that he cannot be taxed on it. I wonder what he would say if he saw most of the things we buy today are made in China? He believed in the poor man and making sure their needs were met – have you seen the farmer with the cell phone in his hand talking to the granary a good 20 kms away – keeping up on the market rates for grain? Wonder what he would say about that?

We’ve come a long way Bapu – in some ways but in others – we still have a ways to go.

I think it was from Robert Frost’s poem – the woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep. But you got the essence of what I was trying to say…..